Return of Clown Bomber Jack
by Dan Rush
Summary: Clown Bomber Jack's back and Astro teams with his rival Atlas to put a stop to Jack's city wide rampage.


ASTRO BOY

THE RETURN OF CLOWN BOMBER JACK

by Dan Rush

© Astro Boy 2003 Tezuka Productions Japan, all rights respected. Published for fan enjoyment only, making no money, don't sue me please.

Characters:

Astro Boy: Our pointy haired hero

Atlas Boy: Our pointy haired hero's rival

Clown Bomber Jack: A lunatic scientist who enjoys blowing stuff up

Timber Tim: A Firefighting bot with a big ax

Doctor O'Shay: The old cotton hair doo dude.

Miss Myoki: School teacher

Reno: A wiz kid robot scientist

Midnight

**Engine Company 7**

**Flame house**

Atlas struggled to get his arms through the straps of the SCUBA tank. "I can't see why I have to have this thing on, it's to bulky."

Timber adjusted the straps and started tucking a few loose ones through some of the belt loops. "I don't want to be breathing in all that smoke and garbage. I don't think your circuit chips would benefit well from an acid bath."

Timber pushed on Atlas a little till the red skinned robot was a foot from the door of the burn house. A snap of a hand trigger and exploding flames shot past Atlas's head causing him to dive to the ground and curse up a storm.

"Giggles" "That was just a company joke." Tim said as he helped Atlas up.

"That wasn't funny at all!" Atlas griped. "You trying to scorch me?"

"Hey you were the one who wanted to try this out, not me." Timber said as he drew a large ax from a pouch on his back. "Get ready to eat smoke buddy boy!"

One swing and the door exploded in shards of splinters. "Don't just stand there, turn the hose on!"

"We can do this ourselves?" Atlas asked as Timber got behind him and pushed him forwards. "No, I thought maybe we'd cook some hot dogs and watch robber ball on television, MOVE BEFORE I KICK YOU!"

Atlas entered the smoke filled simulator and was greeted by a hot blast of air and flame as Tim increased the flow of burning propane into the room. "Come on! Swing that hose around! Aim at the base of the flames!"

It was gloriously exciting to Atlas! He charged forwards watching a tongue of flame surge within inches of his head and threw the hose bail up to defend himself. "Good, good, don't stop! Attack it!" Screamed Tim. At last Atlas had beaten the last lick of flame back to the gas nozzle and Tim turned the system off.

Atlas came out of the house whooping and screaming as he pulled the firefighting helmet and gas mask off his head. "OH YEAH! THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"Please don't wake anyone up!" Tim warned as he pulled his gear off. "This is kind of illegal to do at this time of night."

"But it was awesome!" Atlas said, his whole body felt alive with tingling. "Let's do it again! Let's do it again!"

"Maybe some other time…like when you apply to the academy?" The fire bot asked. Atlas suddenly became lackluster and stooped.

"Why not? You got the talent for it, you're very excited about it, you'd be fantastic. We need good people like you."

Atlas plopped down on the dirt road. "Who are you kidding? I'm an unlikable trouble maker, I can't get along with humans and doing it goes against everything I stand for."

"But you follow the trucks everywhere, collect patches and toy fire engines and think we're the best thing since sliced toast…Oh come on Atlas stop being such a block headed twirp. No one in a company gives a hoot where you come from." Tim said as he shook his ax. "This matters, this hose matters, the people who might have lived in that house matter. You're a fool if you keep talking yourself out of having a real family."

The red boy bot gave Tim a good long look, shook his head and flew off, much to Tim's frustration as he buried the big ax in a nearby light pole. He stood brooding till the pole crashed right behind his back.

"I gotta watch what I'm doing with that thing."

Morning

Astro sat brooding legless over a comic book. Legless because Reno was busy at a nearby table putting in two new turbofan casings Astro had ruined the day before. " His little experiment with Nitros, not exactly a smart thing to do." Reno snorted as Timber Tim sat playing with his fingers.

"So he just left?" Astro asked.

" Oh he gave the idea a thought…for a minute." Timber said. " I don't think he can make up his mind to be honest. He's all set on this "rivalry" thing with you."

Reno came walking up and clicked Astro's lower legs back into place. "You pull this stunt again Astro and I won't replace them."

Astro slipped off the table and followed Timber out the door. " He's him. Give it about ten years and he might start filling out the application."

"I don't see the joke." Tim replied snorting. "He's good, he's perfect and as a friend I'm begging you to help me get him out of his little cubby hole."

Astro took a deep breath. " He's not one to follow anyone's advice you know."

"It seems you have the same problem." Tim said as he pointed to Astro's legs. " If we have to kidnap him and tie him to a fire hose…you'll help right?"

"Beep beep beep beep…." "There goes my pager, gotta run."

"You going to be at the ice cream store later?" Astro asked.

"If I'm not busy throwing axes around." Timber yelled as he ran down a hallway and out through a door.

Metro Police Station

Inspector Gumshoe was just sitting down to his morning cup of coffee when his aid came walking in with the morning mail. "Chief this package just came from FEDEX. Anyone you know?"

Gumshoe looked down at the address. "It's from the academy."

"Maybe an old alumni buddy of yours sent you something?" The officer asked as Gumshoe pulled what looked like a snow globe from the box and set it on the desk.

"A rather whimpy looking gift from a police alumni don't you think?" Gumshoe asked as he looked at the glass sphere. Suddenly it began to play a music box toon.

"London bridges? Could one of your old buddies be an English Bobby?"

"Heck no!" Gumshoe replied. Just then the sphere began to brighten with light and a ray shot from the surface and lit up a nearby wall.

"Well I'm back in town again Inspector! How nice to have slipped away from prison to have a few laughs at your expense!"

"That….that voice!" Gumshoe snarled. Sure enough the image of a clown appeared. "Damn it! Bomber Jack's escaped from prison, call the special units, call the mayor, call the ministry of science!"

"Oh come now Inspector…all this attention just for me? I'm touched really I am. I'm sure you've missed the times we've had. Oh by the way my first gift should be popping about now…."

Gumshoe and his aid gasped as they knew an explosion usually followed Bomber Jack's taunting. But nothing happened…..yet.

"Well….that will teach me to buy cheep electrical parts from a Walmart." Bomber Jack's visage said as it tapped a foot.

KABOOM!!!

"Uh! There we go! Well I don't want to keep you on pins and grenades do I? Have a nice day Inspector!"

The visage disappeared as the sounds of fire trucks replaced it.

Engine Company 7

……..Engine 7…..Ladder 3……Company 14……..Company 37……Explosion and fire…Kanagawa Plastics works….125-23 Chokai Street….respond…..respond….

Timber snatched a hand-hold as the fire engine peeled out into the street and down towards the industrial district where the whole plastics plant was a raging oven. "Did you hear that! Sounded like a bomb!"

Former Nissan Plant

Atlas was sleeping on a mattress on the roof of the old factory building, a solar panel attached to his chest by a USB cable sucked in needed units of untarnished pure power. He'd picked up the trick as a way to save on his atomic batteries thus lessening the need to go pilfering around and stealing what he wanted. The thunderous explosion near the bay was enough to shake the building under his back and he rolled up to see a column of smoke rush skywards from an obvious detonation.

Hurriedly he clicked on the computer on his chest door and dialed in the fire department scanner frequency. "Yes it's a bad one, send additional companies! Many trapped workers inside, flames are huge…."

He didn't hesitate a second. Atlas blasted off towards the fire as another explosion rocketed a gas tank high into the air over the buildings.

The Plant

Timber Tim and the other firemen of Company 7 came crawling out from under their truck as the debris falling from the sky finally settled down. "Is there any doubt that this is gonna suck?" Tim asked his fellows as Astro landed behind him on the truck.

"This is bad!"

"Wow! You have a gift for the obvious don't you?" Tim snorted as he grabbed his ax off the Truck. "This is way too big for just an isolated fire."

"You think it's deliberate?" Astro asked as he followed Timber.

"No doubts. Problem is…we don't know if it's over yet so sending guys inside the main building to fight the fires is out."

"So the answer is to leave any robots trapped inside to fend for themselves? That's not acceptable." Came a voice from behind the truck. Atlas emerged dragging a fire fighting cover-all and a SCUBA tank behind him. "Get dressed puppy, or are going to sit there like always and look stupid?"

"Amazing! He showed up! And without a camera and scanner this time, I'm shocked!"

Atlas snorted at Astro. "I came only because I have a better idea than you. The three of us will go in there and get our fellow robots out. Then we can clear the way for the firefighters to do their stuff…sound good?"

Timber Tim swung his ax. "You're sounding just like a "Probie". Shouldn't you be at the academy or something? Oh I remember…you turned it down."

"I…wasn't ready yet." The red robot replied as he pulled his fire suit on.

The steel door came off the hinges with ease and Timber lightly dragged Atlas and Astro behind him as they tightly held a charged fire hose under their arms.

"Chief, we're inside the main plant. I have fire all over the place, mostly on the floor. What should we be watching for in here?"

The fire chief was outside with Inspector Gumshoe. "The Inspector here says this suspect likes to plant vertical charges almost everywhere. He's asking why Astro didn't tell you that."

"I was too busy taking a leak." Astro replied.

"You think you're a hot shot comedian don't you?" Atlas snorted.

"Shut your traps and keep an eye on the fire please?" Timber said as he pulled Atlas's head around to the front.

"So demanding." Atlas joked as he pushed the hose bale around to sweep away the flames in front. Ahead there came some shouts from the machine facility as a group of robots huddled together surrounded by a wall of flames.

"WE'RE COMING! JUST HANG IN THERE!" Timber shouted through his mask mic. He would have gone ahead had Astro not snatched him by the arm.

"Wait! Look on that column." Astro said pointing to a support column ahead. "There's one of those "pucks" Bomber Jack uses. I bet he wired every support in here to blow apart."

"So what?" Atlas replied. "Defuse it and let's keep going. Or is that beyond your ability?"

" You never take the time to look do you smart guy. He's daisy chained them together, or can't you see the wires sticking out of the top?"

Timber used his own vision to look at the bomb. "What's that thing sitting on top of the puck?"

"An anti-tamper tumbling device." Atlas said. "I do notice a few things. So what's your plan smart guy?"

The three robots climbed a ladder to a catwalk above the explosive. "You're kidding me right?"Atlas snorted. "This place is a blow torch and we're supposed to take time out to lower you down there so you can play with that thing?"

"Our air's getting short here Astro. We should take our chances, cut through the fire and get these robots out!" Timber asked as Astro tied a rope to his legs

"And set off the daisy chain and get us all killed? I'm not that foolish."

"Yeah….you're just stupid." The red bot snorted as he and Tim lowered Astro over the side and tied the end of his rope to a steel water pipe. Astro dangled just above the bundle of wires above the explosive as Timber and Atlas came up with the fire hose.

"We'll keep you cool puppy dog, just hurry up."

The robots were clustered in an ever tightening group as licks of flame crept closer to the center of the machine shop. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! HELP US!"

"THE BUS! JUST KEEP YOUR SHIRT ON!" Atlas yelled out. "Hey Goodie, do you have it yet?"

Astro poked at the wires till he figured out which one to clip. "Yes! I'm gonna splice this wire through my own computer and make the bomb's chip think everything's fine! Go ahead and get them out…..NOW!"

Atlas almost pulled Timber off his feet and he charged past Astro and cleared the way back for the other robots. Astro worked to pull the detonator out of the puck and quickly ran out of the building before the other explosives went off. He turned just in time to see the machine shop fall in on itself.

2 hours later…

Timber had finished his work and came over to the Engine where Atlas and Astro sat apart from each other. He laughed a little thinking it for the best. The fire was enough of a fight without them going at each other every minute. "It's out. Who ever your friend is Astro he sure trashed the place."

"Bomber Jack. Nothing like a disgruntled scientist." Astro said as he looked over at Atlas sitting in his fireman's suit. "You look happy."

"Ok…I'll admit it. I want to go to the firefighting academy…grudgingly. Don't think that just because I wanted to go all of a sudden that I'm caving in to you."

"Right." Timber said smiling. "Defender of the robot faithful."

"No way, totally your idea." Astro remarked. "I better go find Gumshoe and see what he's found out about Bomber Jack."

"_I know you've all misssssed me so much didn't you? Well not nice of me to call back every so often isn't it? This is just my first delectable calling card for you all…the next one I promise you will be even better. Tah tah!"_

"Crazy freak." Gumshoe snorted. His aid Eddy Kanagawa ran the film back and forth to try and figure out what was in the background noise. "He's got a radio blasting in the room, if there's any clues it'll take a few days to figure them out."

"Maybe if you analyze some of the materials from his detonator Astro we could come up with some locations to scout out. Like the nitrates he's using for his explosives?"

Astro shook his head. "I can't do all that stuff. You need a big chemical test lab to be that accurate."

"Yeah. Like the annual budget for procurements would eventually pay that out. Since his first crime involved a threat to robots I've called the Delta unit into the investigation. I'll need you to work with them Astro."

Just then Delta, the leader of the anti-robot crimes task force, walked through the door with a folder in his hand. "If you're finished with your briefing Inspector I'll have a word with Astro about this maniac."

" Ok…" Gumshoe replied. He and the other police no sooner left than Delta locked the door.

"Now…before we go any further I would like to bring up a sore spot with you. A little too cozy relationship you're keeping with a certain red devil."

Astro sat on a table and pursed his lips. "Delta…haven't you ever heard of something humans call "progressive rehabilitation"?"

"When it involves property damages in excess of half a million yen, juvenile vandalism, theft and disrespect to authority? No…and don't try pulling this 3-point psychology smoke on me Astro. I know you're coddling him."

"I'm not coddling him Delta I'm steering himto the right direction."

Delta leaned over Astro with a snarl. "I don't care…he has 3 outstanding police warrants and that means he has to go into the slammer. You keep sticking with him and you too will be spending time in jail with him. Think about it Astro."

"I'd rather think about capturing Bomber Jack at the moment, wouldn't you?"

**Bomber Jack's hideout**

**West Metro City**

"Hmmm…where next, where next, where….next. Ah my old friend O'Shay where should I pop up to tighten the screws of worry in your brain, a school, a train station, perhaps this ice cream place some friends of your little toy boy like to hang out in ah so many wonderful spots to create a little work of art I can't decide."

The man pulled a dart from his coat. "But this…now this is Democratic don't you think so O'Shay?"

He gave the dart a good toss and smirked at the result on the wall. A little challenging…a nuclear aircraft carrier making a port visit? Hmmm…How can I possibly avoid such a tempting target?"

**Abandoned Nissan Plant **

Atlas was laying on a body pillow when Astro pushed the trap door in the floor open. The loft was the red robot's hideaway when police started snooping around for a hide out, even after a year of laying low nothing dimmed the popularity Atlas had built up with Gumshoe and a few irate well to do fleshies.

"Well…finally decided to take my offer." Atlas said sleepishly as Astro crawled up and took a seat.

"Wore you out didn't it?" Astro said. "I was thinking…"

"You were going to tell me about those 3 police warrants."

"How did you?"

Atlas rolled around. "I can read your pasty human loving face. You're better than a Doctor Seus book."

"So you know Delta wants to bring you in?"

"Yup. I figured your little "progressive rehabilitation" argument would find little support. You know fleshies and their money can never be parted."

Atlas sat up and suckled water from a canteen bag. "I'm not turning myself in. I do that and it's bye bye to the fire-fighting academy. Then it'll be "bye bye" to progressive rehab."

"Don't make it worse than it is!" Astro warned nervously.

Atlas giggled. "You are so easy to upset Goodie. I'm not going to turn myself in and let some jerk in a white coat re-wire me into a submissive little grinder monkey, no way."

Astro sighed then stretched out on the floor. "So how do we catch this mad bomber?"

Atlas pursed his lips and crawled over to Astro. "What? What's this "we" stuff?"

"He is a threat to robots, I thought your deep convictions would make it easy to get you to help me before he strikes again." There was a long pause. "Oh come on…it may give you a chance to do some real legal butt thrashing for once?"

"Tempting." Atlas said smiling. "Let me think on it ok?"

"That'll be another 5 year plan. Atlas, don't you think being a rebel and trying to trash everything I do isn't hurtful to all of us?"

Atlas sat up and got in Astro's face. "You think all you have to do Astro is be "nice" to these flesh bags and act all "kind" and they'll all do what you like? It might work for kids but it sure as heck never works with money grubbing, scum sucking adult squishies….grrrrrr….you do it to give me headaches!"

"Maybe it's you who make all the headaches Atlas. Well…I'll see you out on town after you finish yelling at yourself." Astro said smiling as he left.

Atlas rolled over and pouted…"So truthful…God I can hate that little weasel."

**Morning**

**Metro City Primary School**

Miss Myoki gathered the students into a group before they got on the bus for the field trip to the aircraft carrier Rakasan. "Now I want you all to stay close together, a ship this big is no place for children to be going around in alone. I think the Sailors have enough work to do without having to be babysitters."

Shibugaki didn't seen impressed. "Man I begged my dad to take me. He was bragging last night that he knew the Rakasan's captain and he could get me all over the ship with no problem. I bet we'll just do the standard tour through the hanger deck then leave."

Kenichi smirked. "How would you know what that is? You never been on a warship before."

"I'd rather be home working on my new lap top computer." Tamao said pouting. "What's so amazing about a ship? I can get all I need to know on the internet. This is just an excuse for our school to torture us."

Astro started laughing. "You say that during every field trip! By the end you'll be telling us how "whicked" and "Super awesome" it was…you watch."

**Engine Company 7**

Timber walked out into the street pulling fire hoses behind him and laying them out to dry in the morning sun. This was his every week chore, flaking hoses and scrubbing the lime and oxides off the brass bales. He sat in a pair of "Hockey" pants, what the firefighters called "Worbley's paddings", a pair of beach sandals and a jungle hat to ward off the hot sun above.

He was still dragging from the night before, a nasty 5 alarm blaze that left his inner circuits hot and slow to catch up with the flow of power from his batteries…so much so that he slowly fell asleep, hugging a fire bail as a substitute pillow.

**Warehouse, West Metro**

Delta had received the tip from someone this morning, an unidentified source who'd been watching some strange happenings at the warehouse. He stood close by while another member of the Delta Unit scanned the large sliding metal door ahead.

"No doubt Lieutenant." The blue robot said as he reported. "It's wired. Looks like our pal doesn't want us to enter."

"Spider? What do you see so far?" Delta asked another of his robots.

"I can confirm that boss. The suspect has the windows triple tripped and the other doors are worse. It'll be a while before we can force an entry."

Delta took a moment to think. "You tried to raise Astro didn't you Sergeant?"

"Yes sir, but he's not answering."

"Disobedient little cuss. I want you to call Doctor O'shay and tell him to drag that kid out of school and get him over here. I don't care what excuses he tries to pull."

**Aircraft Carrier Rhakasan**

Miss Myoki's class followed the naval officer onto the bridge of the carrier. "Now from here we can steer the ship and direct the air operations…"

"I thought you said we'd get the "standard tour"?" Astro asked Shibugaki. "This isn't the hanger deck you know."

"You need to be deprogrammed of wise butt comments Astro." The bigger boy complained.

"This is certainly better than I thought it would be!" Tamao said smiling. "This is so cool! Look at all the hardware, much more than I got back home, wonder if they'd let me try a few buttons?"

"If we did that son you may just blow up half of Metro City." The escorting officer said with a smile. "Now if you'll follow me I'll take you all to where we control the flight operations…"

Astro was looking around on his own when a voice buzzed in his head. "Hey goodie boots!"

"Atlas? So you did take me up on the offer huh?"

" Well I decided to come down for the tour. You should walk under this thing, it's huge."

Astro looked at the deck. "You're under the ship?"

"Duh! Hasn't the obvious hit you yet? This thing's a big old fat bulls-eye in the middle of the city. One good thousand pound bomb and KABLAMO! I'm cruising around the hull to see if clown puss will show up. Where are you anyway?"

"On the bridge with my teacher."

Atlas stopped in the mud under the props. "With your teacher? Well don't you think I could use a hand here? After all, your rival has generously given up his leisure time to aid you in tracking down a dangerous opponent. You are being very rude, disrespectful and if you don't start pulling your weight I will so come up there and pound you one!"

"But she'll get upset if I…"

"I'll count to three and then I'll cause you nothing but trouble…..one…."

"Alright Atlas!" Astro snorted. He leaped off the bridge wing and landed on the flight deck. "Something tells me I'll live to regret the thought of "Progressive rehab" with him." The boy bot walked into a cat-walk and looked down at the visiting crowd below. "There's thousands of people and Bomber Jack is a master of disguise." Astro thought as his eyes zoomed in and scanned over the crowd. "This could take all day and he could still get through."

A beeping noise in Astro's pocket told him his cel phone was ringing. "Astro here."

"Why are you ignoring my calls!" An angry Doctor O'Shay screamed. "I've been trying to contact you through radio and you're turned off!"

"Sorry Doctor." Astro pleaded. "I was on the tour and…"

"Never mind the tour. Delta is furious with you, he thinks you're trying to do this investigation by yourself. You better clue him in on what you know." The phone clicked off, leaving Astro shaking his head. "I have better days than this."

Astro turned on his radio and called Delta. "You bellowed for me?"

"I ordered you to keep in contact with me at all times!" Delta snarled. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the aircraft carrier on a school field trip and probably expecting a ruler on the butt or something from my angry teacher. Anyway I think I need some help over here. This is way too tempting a target for Bomber Jack to pass by."

"Do you think he'd try to attack the ship?" Delta asked.

"He might. I don't have an answer really, just a thought."

Astro climbed out of the catwalk and found his transmission interrupted. "Hey Goodie…would a missing vent cover qualify as strange to you?"

"Huh? Where?"

"Under here." Atlas said as he stood by a wide-open hole in the hull. "There should be a cover for this vent but it's obviously gone. I'm gonna climb up into it and see if there's something here."

"Be careful." Astro said back as he ran to join his classmates by a catapult. He slid to a stop as Miss Myoki turned to look at him.

"Don't go running off Astro without telling me. If you do it then all the kids will follow you."

"I uh…needed to find a bathroom?" The boy bot replied giggling. He stopped giggling when Atlas started talking again.

"Hey…remember that missing vent cover and I said I was gonna see if something was up in here?"

"Yeah?" Astro said closing his eyes. He dreaded to wonder. "And?"

"Well it's kinda round, kinda bombish looking and it has a timer."

Astro grabbed Miss Myoki and pulled her a little to the side. "Uh…Miss Myoki? I think you better get the class off the ship…uh….a friend of mine just found this bomb and…"

"A BOMB!" The teacher screamed loud enough that it got everyone close by running for their lives.

"Goodie? Did you just tell somebody there's a bomb down here?"

"Uh….yeah."

"Way to go knucklehead!"

**Engine Company 7**

Timber was just about finished with his last fire hose bale when the engine house alarm started going off…

"Engine 7, Ladder 3, Engine 14, Rescue 4…report of fire and victims at 6th and Dysuki, 6th and Dysuki…"

Timber ran into the house, jumped into his fire suit and grabbed the engine as it rolled out of the firehouse and into the street. "Nuts Maudi!" Tim snorted to his companion beside him. "I just got the bales all nice and clean too!"

"Well at least we can keep our reputation as the cleanest bunch of smoke eaters in the city! You should have tied a pretty bow on them too, could have gotten us a spot in Cosmo magazine!"

**The Rhakasan**

Astro made himself lost in the confusion and dropped over the side and under the carriers massive hull. He found the open underwater vent and screamed up into it, getting a metallic clank in return…

"Hey! Do you mind not scaring me!" Atlas snorted back.

"Can you figure it out? Astro asked as he climbed up the tube.

"I could if you'd stop messing with me. So are the police here yet?"

"Nope…but they're coming." Astro remarked.

"I'll be leaving then." Atlas snorted back. He smiled…"Did I worry you? Just keep them away from me and I'll deal with this."

Astro rocketed back onto the flight deck as Delta and his unit landed. "So where's this friend and the device? And why are you ignoring me?"

Astro shrugged. "You try talking through this thick steel and see if you get a connection. My friend says you can't get too close or you'll upset the bomb."

"I'll give you one minute to tell me where this thing is before I clamp you in cuffs." Delta sternly warned Astro.

"Creep…tell him to jump in the stupid harbor." Atlas said in Astro's head.

"I can't!"

"You are such a wuss."

**Office building at 6****th**** and Dysuki**

Timber was off the rig and through the front door before the rest of the company had their hoses flaked out. There was smoke alright, not the kind of smoke a fire would produce had it been a full on flamer. Tim stopped to smell the air and curled his lips.

"Chief…I don't think we got a fire here. There's no burning smell." Timber said as he opened door after door to find nothing behind them. "Some one's pulling a big shuck on us."

"Keep looking. Just clear things out." The Chief replied. "Hoses one and two are coming up behind you."

**The Rhakasan**

"Hey…where you at right now?" Atlas asked.

"Uh…kissing steel. My minute's up and well…Delta didn't like my answer. They're looking all over the ship for you."

Atlas frowned. "Well I got some good news for squishy land. The bomb's a fake. The bad news is I think we all got had by clown creep."

Astro broke from Delta's grip just as he got handcuffed. "Delta listen…Atlas says the bomb's a fake!"

"Where is he! Where is he Astro or so help you…"

Astro snarled angrily. "FORGET THAT! THE BOMB'S A FAKE!…"

" I don't care if the ship was fake…where….is….that little red terrorist friend of yours? NOW!"

**Office building at 6****th**** and Dysuki**

Timber Tim opened another office door and looked about the room amidst a rushing ball of white smoke. Behind the desk as he leaned over the top, Timber saw to his horror a large disk size object with a timer.

And it was reaching zero.

"GET OUT! GET OUT! BOMB…..BO…."

The explosion raced out of the room in all directions. It raced into the two robot hose teams and blasted them to bits. It raced out of the building and slammed into the fire department rigs. It picked up the fire chief and his aid and threw them through a picture window. It bounced around inside the office building till the whole thing came slamming down like a pancake on anyone left below…

It smacked into Astro's sensitive ears. It bounced around in the water as Atlas was coming up to the surface.

"What was that?" The red bot asked. He came up just in time to see Astro rocketing over his head still in handcuffs with Delta right on his heels. He rose from the water high enough to see a cloud of black smoke where a building once stood.

**Office building at 6****th**** and Dysuki**

Astro landed amidst the destruction, pulling his handcuffs apart as he started walking around the devastation. He ran across the street just as the fire chief stumbled out through the picture window he'd been blasted through…

"What happened?" Astro asked as he held him.

"My boys! My boys!" The Chief cried. "They were all in there!"

Astro ran back past Delta, who was stunned by the magnitude of the blast. "I told you. Don't you think you should call for some help?"

The boy bot started pulling debris up and tossing them off to the side when Atlas came down nearby. "Damn! Anyone hurt? He must have…"

Atlas stopped talking when Astro pulled a crushed fire-fighting helmet from the smoking ruins. He shuddered, shook his head and started digging in frantic earnest.

"Help me…..HELP ME! HELP ME DIG!" Atlas screamed. He was throwing debris around without looking where they were flying. "TIMBER! TIM! TIM ANSWER ME!"

"Watch where you're chucking stuff!" Astro warned.

"Shut up and dig!" Atlas snarled. He came up with a detached robot arm and shook. "No…..no, no, no, no…..no….."

Delta saw Atlas and walked over to grab him from behind. The red boy bot jumped up and kicked him back onto the rubble. "DON'T EVEN TRY IT! OUR BROTHERS ARE IN THIS MESS!"

Fire fighters and police were swarming in from everywhere now but all the help in the world wasn't going to do any good. Astro pulled a slab of concrete and rebar away from the pile only to come face to face with the shattered remains of a fire bot…

The back of his fire suit said in yellow…."TIMBER"

**Institute of Science**

**Hours later…**

It took a good deal of finesse to get Atlas into the Institute's sensitive lab areas, certainly Doctor O'Shay wasn't happy about it though he could tolerate it only due to his trust in Astro's judgment. It might not have looked like it at the moment but Atlas had to be doing some sort of thinking, possibly praying to himself, as the minutes ticked away.

Unlike humans with their finality once life expired, robots had one last hope when their bodies were ruined. Inside every robot is the Central Processor, the store of all memory and collective experience. If it could survive the worst, and it was built to certainly try, a new body could be produced for it. Atlas sat quivering for news as Astro joined him on the bench. He was wise to say nothing, choosing instead to wait till his pal Reno came out of the lab.

The young robotic scientist stooped down to look at both ro-boys. "I uh….I did all I could…I'm sorry. His CPU was smashed to chunks…"

At first Atlas said nothing. He looked around…shook his head…looked around… quivered his lips then slammed a fist through the wall behind him. He looked at Astro and ran down the hallway to the end where he shattered through a window.

"You better go after him before he does something crazy!" Reno warned. He pushed Astro by the back and the bot all but flew down the hallway and through the broken window.

**Abandoned Nissan Plant**

"ATLAS!…." Astro cried the name out over and over with no luck. "What am I doing, he's never going to just come out and show himself."

Astro made his way up to the hiding place and sure enough as he opened the trap door he could hear the sounds…of crying?"

Atlas was sitting with his stuffed fire engine teddy bear absolutely balling with rivers of water flowing down his cheeks and dripping onto the floor. When he turned to see Astro coming up through the door opening he quickly tried to feign that he wasn't crying, which was an obvious failure…

"Sniff…" "What the heck do YOU want!"…"sniff…." "GET OUT!"

"I just wanted to see if you were ok…Atlas?"

"I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

Atlas tried to punch Astro's face but soon found himself balling again as Astro gripped his fists. "He….murdered him…" "sniff" "Timber did nothing to no one and…" "It hurts! I'll never see him again Goodie! It hurts…."

Atlas collapsed into Astro's arms. "I'm gonna kill him…I'm gonna rip this city apart and then I'm gonna rip the creeps heart out and shove it…"

"No!" Astro warned as he grabbed Atlas's shoulders. "What? You going to just throw away the academy so you can spend a day or two in a blind rage destroying half of Metro City?"

"Unlike you…you whimpy little creep…I can kill! That's just what Bomber Jack needs. No trial, no jury, no mess and no more life!"

Astro threw a quick judo move and pinned Atlas to the floor with a boot in his neck. "All I have to do is move and I'll disable you…You're not throwing away everything you gained on a revenge binge! I won't let you!"

Atlas moved from being tough to sobbing again…"Don't you feel it? We'll never see Tim again…everything he was…all his memories, He was our friend! Bomber Jack took my best friend away from me! I got the right to kill him!"

"And I have a duty to protect you. I'm sorry." Astro slapped a hand against Atlas's face and sent a surge of electricity large enough to knock out Atlas's sensitive electronic brain. "And yes…I do understand."

**Miss Myoki's house**

A ring at the door took Myoki away from watching the latest news. She opened her front door to find Astro standing with a red robot slung over his shoulder. "Can I come in? He's a real lard butt."

"Astro? How many times do I have to warn you about the language you pick up?" Myoki said as the boy bot lowered Atlas onto a couch. "Oh my…that's."

"Yeah…I thought you'd be the best place for him for now. He….just lost his best friend in that bombing today and he's a little upset."

Myoki scratched her head. "He's upset? I thought he was a maniac anti-human terrorist?"

"That's the stupid news people pushing that." Astro said as he leaned against the couch. "He's actually very tender hearted though a little misguided. I thought keeping him here with your cute face, nice smile and soft lap he might feel better."

"Astro that's chauvinistic and rude."

"But true." The boy bot replied smiling. "Look Miss Myoki, Atlas isn't use to this "grief" thing. I want to keep him from trashing the city till I find Bomber Jack."

"And what's to keep him from trashing my house?" She warned.

"Your nice smile, cute face and warm lap." Both of them said together.

"You are going to owe me triple home work." Myoki warned with a finger. Astro waved back to her as he walked out of the house.

**Institute of Science**

"His best friend huh? I'm really sorry I couldn't save anything Astro." Reno said as he took a seat at his desk. "It must be so hard for Atlas after all you two are identical and this must be the first time he's experienced the idea of death."

"His first time?" Astro said frowning. "Timber Tim was my friend too. Did you do what I asked?"

"Not easily. You're asking me to lie to the police so you can handle this yourself." Reno shook his head. "Don't drop my name when they get upset. I did the research and found that the electrical parts for the detonator came from SHARPTECH stores limited. The specific code numbers on the wires and the circuit registration numbers came from a store in Daikuma-ichi."

Astro crossed his arms. "Can you do one of your disguise packages again?"

"You ask?" Reno snickered. "I got a perfect one in mind if you're willing to tolerate a skirt and long hair."

Astro's eyes widened. "What!?"

Remember the dare game we played at Tamao's birthday party? You specifically said you'd let me change you into a girl. You lost." Reno smirked widely and held up a victory sign with his hand. "You asked for it."

"I'm gonna kill you for this." Astro said with a look of doom.

**Bomber Jack's hideout**

Pictures of the destroyed fire bots filled the television screen as Bomber Jack sat cutting and splicing wires into another one of his sick creations. He had spent most of the day gathering clippings from newspapers about his "art work"

"Not spectacular enough!" He decried. "Too small a building, too low the attention. I need to score a more masterful canvas of chaos on my next commission. I also need to score more wires too I see…oh my work as a great artist is never completed!"

**Miss Myoki's house**

Atlas stirred and woke under a thick blanket in a chilled living room. He looked around to see Myoki sitting at the end of the couch sipping a cup of hot tea.

"You're awake." She said as she got up and walked up to the boy bot. Atlas pulled the blanket to him self defensively.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I'm Astro's school teacher. He dropped you off here. I…heard about your friend, I'm so sorry."

Atlas couldn't put up a brave front and he just wanted to leave but Myoki held him by the hand. "It's alright. There's no shame in crying, you need to let it all out."

"He….he was my friend." Atlas whimpered.

"Astro is your friend, I'm your friend, you really don't know just how many friends you have. And they call you such a bad robot, what a bunch of jerks."

Atlas lost it again, sobbing and crying into Myoki's lap, saying Timber Tim's name over and over and trying to pound the couch cushions flat. Myoki gently patted him on the head till he sat up frowning with embarrassment.

"Some robot I turned out to be…" Atlas said as he wiped his eyes. "Can't even protect my friend…I can't upstage that soupy Astro…and I'm acting like a stupid lost kid in a shopping mall…I suck."

Myoki sighed. "It's easier to put yourself down isn't it? You're not so bad really."

"Hmph!" Atlas snorted as he stood up. "You're only saying that because Astro put you up to it."

"Maybe I'm saying it because you've tricked yourself into thinking you're short fallen. I can tell you're jealous, it's a big white flag over your head. Why not drop all this bravado you spout?"

Atlas started playing a finger over his lips and looking about the apartment. "Do you? Do you have any chocolate milk?"

Myoki smiled. "Astro set you up for that by the way."

"That sneak."

**SHARPTECH store**

Daikuma-ichi Ginza

"Awww…you look so cute in black shoes, long knee socks and a sailor suit!" Reno's voice hummed in Astro's head as he walked through the front doors.

"I hate you. When this is over Reno you're going to regret doing this to me…ugh!… stupid fake hair! Next time we play birthday games I'm sitting in a corner by myself!"

"Temper temper oh rocket ranger." Reno said half giggling as he watched the monitor that was patched into Astro's eyes. "No doubt our jerk bomb artist will also be in some sort of disguise as well. You should move to electronics and computers and hold out till he shows up."

Astro walked over to a row of computers and started looking at the pamphlets. "How can you be sure he'll pop in here?"

"Am I ever wrong in my hunches oh Princess Mononoke? By the way your panties are showing."

"Grrrrr…..Reno!" Astro warned. "That does it! I'm getting out of here! I'm gonna come back there, rip you a wedgie and hang you from a flag pole!" Astro turned around just as a shopper walked right past him with a big shopping cart. Slowly Astro walked around another isle and carefully peaked over the top.

"Guess what…he's here."

"No kidding?" Reno said smiling. "I'm better than a palm reader, how did you know?"

"Those dumb glasses of his." Astro replied. "He's wearing thick horn rims with multi-band sun blocker screens. Talk about a serious dork. Sticks out like a flag!"

"So what are you going to do? I know…you can curtsy in front of him, tell him he's under arrest and give him flowers!"

Astro frowned. " I'm not going to talk to you anymore."

"Well don't just sit there Astro, go an snag him!"

Astro slowly made his way to the end of the isle and poised himself like a cat ready to pounce a mouse. As Bomber Jack walked past him Astro grabbed his coat, spun him around in the air and threw him backwards into a stack of CD-Rom boxes!

"Should have picked a better day to shop you creep!" The robot snarled at the bomber as he tried to scramble for his feet. From out of his jacket sleeve a small disk flew out and exploded in Astro's hands as he made a clapping catch!

Outside the store a collision between a fleeing Bomber Jack and a woman looked like an explosion of shopping wears, a purse, a hat and a pair of shoes going in all directions. Astro bounded over the woman and started ripping the remains of his disguise apart.

"Aw man! He ruined your dress!" Reno screamed into the pit mic he was wearing as he watched the ground vanish in the screen of his monitor.

" Enough of that! Where did he go? Did that bug stay on his jacket?" Astro asked as he floated above the store.

"Oh yeah! He's on foot going north on…..on…..Etoshi Sreet! Look left!" Reno watched the screen change. "RIGHT THERE!"

"Should have known he'd have explosives on him. Lucky I reduced most of the charge. My hands are numb though." Astro snarled as he landed on Etoshi street. "Is he still running?"

"No…he's moving….he's stopped….dumpster."

"Dumpster?"

"Yup….dumpster." Reno said. He watched Astro run around and stopped him as he bypassed the yard where the dumpster was. "He's still there."

"No he's not." Astro replied. "Wanna know why?"

"Enlighten me." Reno said as he sat back in his chair. Astro pulled a pole from a clothes line out of the ground and slowly pushed the lid of the dumpster up…

**KABOOM!!**

"He dropped his jacket into the dumpster that's why."

"We lost him." Reno snorted. Not for long as he saw out of the corner of Astro's eyes the image of a hover car beating high speed from behind a building. "TALLY HO OH POINTY HAIRED PIT BULL!"

"You and your corny remarks." Astro said as he jumped into the air and gave chase to the bomber's hover car. "You're not getting away from me that easy Bomber Jack!"

Astro was gaining on the hover car as it raced over the open-air highway between Metro City and New Shinjuku. "I warn you Jack! Pull over now or you won't like the shake up I'm going to give you!"

"I won't like it?" Bomber Jack replied. "How about those children below? Think they'll enjoy this?" The mad man threw a bomb puck out of his car. It sailed through the air, through the roof of a school bus and clamped itself into the floor-boards!

"YIPE!" Astro gasped as he rocketed down as fast as he could and crashed through the roof of the bus. "STOP!" He cried to the driver as he quickly worked to defuse the device. Bomber Jack had set it to a short countdown and the only thing Astro could do to prevent a holocaust was to cut around himself and the bomb. He fell through the bus floor onto the road and tumbled end over end with the bomb held firmly in his hands.

Astro jumped up to throw the bomb and got blasted through the air when the device exploded a few feet from his hand. He crashed through a semi truck, bounced off the roof of a car and landed on his back…

In a field of horse manure.

"Astro? Astro!" Reno shouted into his mic as the video screen turned to snow for a moment. "Astro…tell me your ok…"

"No…I don't think sitting in horse manure registers as ok does it?" Astro replied upset.

**Miss Myoki's**

Atlas was sitting on the sink counter in the bathroom shaking his head. "You could take ten baths and still smell. See what you get from "following" the law?"

"You were a big help." Astro frowned.

"It's your fault." Atlas said smiling. "You left me at the mercy of this wonderful girl." The red boy bot said as Myoki walked by. "Still…."

"I can't catch this jerk without you." Astro said to Atlas. "And I can't have your help until I know you won't twist him into a pretzel before the police arrive."

Atlas looked away for a moment. "My way….at least I wouldn't be the one right now taking baths to get rid of horse stench. I may just forget about being nice if you're going to continue to screw up."

Atlas pounded the counter and stomped out of the bathroom, leaving Myoki to scrub Astro's head. "He's more growl and snip than bite."

"There are times I can't figure him out Myoki." Astro said as he resisted being cleaned in the ears. "One minute he thinks I'm a real creep, the next minute it's like he's cheer leading me."

"Envy…classic jealous envy." Myoki said smiling. "I see this Bomber Jack is a far more worrisome problem though."

"Not as much as keeping Atlas from…" Astro pursed his lips, flipped out of the tub and ran into the living room. "Aw man! He's gone!"

Looking around the room, Astro found a note scribbled in Crayon…

Since you like messing around, ill deal with this jerk in my own way...follow me and ill pound the screws out of you! Thanks for nothing astro!

Atlas

"Ngh!" Astro snarled as he threw the note on the floor. "Myoki, call the Delta Squad and tell em if they find Atlas before Bomber Jack they should arrest him!" The boy bot said as he ran to a window and jumped out. "Reno? We got a new problem!"

"You're not kidding." Reno replied. "Your red friend just had a run in with one of Delta's robots. He thrashed him and I mean serious MACCO repairs required! He's really ticked off!"

"No kidding." Astro snorted. "Where did he run off too?"

"Judging by all the cop cars popping up everywhere? South. There's also been another bombing. You remember that roadside eatery near route 16? The one with the big plaster cow on the roof?"

"Let me guess…The cow jumped over the moon."

"I wasn't going to make any comments."

" I wasn't going to let you. Now that he did that, Atlas is going to be walking right into a trap!"

Astro's legs pushed out more flame as he raced around the end of the city trying to get Atlas to respond to his calls. _"Don't cut me off Atlas! He's sucker punching you into a dumb trap! _I might as well be talking to a brick wall."

**East Metro City**

A police car went flying by above his head as Atlas crouched behind a stack of boxes in an alley. "Maybe I shouldn't have decked that cop? Oh heck who cares as long as I knock the smile off that dirty human creep."

Atlas waited for the sky to be clear before he flew up over a building and looked around the waterfront. "I know you're trying to pull some wool over my face Bomber Jack but I'm not that stupid."

Atlas's eyes zeroed in on a sudden movement in the window of a factory building. "So there you are!" He said snarling. "I got you now…I'll make you pay dearly for what you did."

The boy bot jumped off the building, flew down to the street and crashed through a storm cover near the factory's wall. Using his finger laser as a trench tool, Atlas cut his way through the floor and climbed up into a room. "Talking? I hope he's having a nice last conversation with himself."

Atlas slowly walked out of the room and entered a hallway where he was quickly set upon by Bomber Jack himself….or rather a poor image of him.

"Well….well….not exactly the person I wanted to see but I guess someone has to do right?" The clown figure asked.

Atlas clenched his fists tight enough for them to creak from the pressure. "Keep talking slimy fat bag…I promise you, you'll live just long enough to count the teeth coming out of your mouth before I snap your silly hide in two."

"My my….such animal aggression from a robot. You my little plastic pergenitation need a little schooling in manors."

"ENOUGH!" Atlas screamed as he swiped at the image. "COME OUT IF YOU HAVE THE GUTS MURDERER! COME OUT OR I SWEAR I'LL BRING THIS BUILDING DOWN ON YOUR DAMNED HEAD!"

"Boo!" A voice came from Atlas's right. He threw a fist through a blank wall and gasped.

"I told you…you need to relax my little friend and enjoy my special brand of art."

Atlas continued on through every room, trying to get a fix on Bomber Jack, when a figure suddenly fell from the ceiling above and tried to lay a pipe aside his head. Atlas blocked the swing and leveled a hard punch through his target….a robot.

"Well, well….seems you fail to learn anything don't you?" The voice said with a laugh. Atlas missed seeing the lights that started blinking about the remains of the destroyed robot fake's body. A sudden surge of powerful electricity suddenly built up inside Atlas's body and before he could move the static charge detonated into an explosion of white and blue light. The red robot was tossed like a broken doll through the roof and at the foot of his intended target.

"Like I said boy…you need to control that raging temper of yours. Oh this will be my most wonderful art creation yet!"

Astro showed up moments later over the same building. "You sure he came by here Reno? I don't see anything."

"My but those cleaning robots are efficient are they not?" Reno said as he ran through several programs on his computer. "Yup….he was by there, the traffic police cams near there caught him in flight."

"I gotta find him before Delta does. You know he's not going to let one of his officers being slapped around slip easy at all."

Astro looked over the ground and too his sudden shock saw Bomber Jack casually walking near a large factory building. "Get a load of this." The boy bot snarled as he slowly dropped from the sky and landed casually behind Bomber Jack. He stood with his arms crossed for a moment before leaning against a lamp post. "Excuse me…..jerk!"

Bomber Jack turned around and laughed. "What? No hug from my long time little friend?

"I'm not that stupid. You're nothing but a wind up fake." Astro pointed angrily. "Why don't you come out and really show some guts…killer!"

"What?" The dummy said. "And miss the fun? Oh you are indeed far smarter than your lobster skinned hot head pal."

Astro gasped. "What did you do to him?!"

"How about you just walk to the front door there and look in?" Bomber Jack asked. "I warn you…try anything stupid and your friend will end up a decorative has been."

Astro slowly walked to the door and stopped short. A few of the window panes were busted so he took a good breath of air and cut loose with a shrilling scream that broke the rest.

"ATLAS!!!ATLAS ANSWER ME!"

"I'M IN HERE!" Atlas called back. "DON'T COME CRASHING IN!"

Astro slowly opened the door and looked in too see Atlas hanging upside down at the other end of the factory floor with a bomb strapped around his neck.

"I SORT OF GOOFED!"

"Think you could have done it less dramatic?" Astro said as he stood looking over the empty expanse of the factory floor. "Let me guess…he's not doing this to make it easy?"

Atlas shook his head. "I should have listened to you…me and my big stupid mouth!"

The fake Bomber Jack came up from behind. "You touch me and I'll make you a pile of mulch." Astro snarled

"Wouldn't dream of it." The robot said back. "The game is simple…if you get to the end of the building from here, your friend keeps ticking. You do anything else? He goes boom!"

"Lousy sense of humor." Atlas snorted.

Astro was puzzled. "I can't see any traps at all. What kind of joke is he pulling?"

Reno was sitting crunched up in his chair and sucking on a lollipop. "Something's not right at all. Try using your infra red filter Astro."

Astro switched his eyes from normal view to infra-red and shook at what was before him. "Lasers!"

"Want to tell me the bad news?" Atlas asked.

"He's got the whole placed loaded with laser beams and from the look of it they all meet up at your dog collar."

"I'll….never mind. Kinda pointless to get upset." Atlas snorted. "Got any good ideas?"

Astro paced back and forth, stopping to tap his foot and look ticked off at the stupid Bomber bot. "I could use an idea here Reno."

"Fly fast?" Reno replied. "Best I can offer you Astro is to walk carefully."

Astro stopped again from pacing and pursed his lips. "Twister…that's it. Twister."

"Twister?" Atlas said as he watched Astro slowly move as if avoiding an invisible bar. "What's that?"

"A game kids play." Astro replied as he stretched out his arms and legs and crawed as low to the floor as he could one minute only to high step and twist his body around the next. "I'm pretty good at it…Yellow dots though are the hardest if you're stuck under an arm and wrapped around a leg."

Atlas moaned. "Great! My life is in the hands of someone who delves into party games. I'm doomed."

Astro snorted. "Just hope I don't learn to sneeze."

It felt like an eternity but Astro was almost there. He stopped with a leg stretched out in front. "Maybe if I set that thing around you neck off it would teach you to control you temper."

"Fat chance." Atlas said as he craned his eyes around to get a look at the nearby wall. "Can I point something out here Goody?"

Astro stopped. "Uh?"

"That mirror over there on the wall…something odd about it."

Astro shrugged. "Just a mirror." He smiled as he held his arms up. The mirror was a fake, which was obvious. Judging by the look of that one section of the wall…the whole façade was a big fake. Astro looked as if he were going to climb over an invisible wall, until his right hand vanished and a bolt of plasma beam went flying from the boy bot's arm and slammed into the wall.

Just as he hoped, the front of an office exploded in shards of wood and glass! Bomber Jack was catapulted off his feet and slammed into a file cabinet, losing his grip on the bomb detonator as it flew threw the air and into the hands of Astro.

"And he intercepts the ball!" The boy bot said as he ran back to Atlas, ripped the bomb off his neck and tossed it to the other side of the factory.

"Now that you're done fooling around, how about getting me out of this?" Atlas asked. He looked to see Bomber Jack running for a door. "Hey he's running! Get me out of this thing now!"

No sooner had Astro pulled the restraints off, Atlas was rocketing away from him. He was on Bomber Jack before the renegade scientist was able to jump down a storm drain. "Oh no! You're not getting away from me that easily creep." Atlas snarled with a toothy grin. "I'm gonna take care of this once and for all the way it should be done."

Atlas blasted strait up into the sky as Astro came flying up. "WAIT! ATLAS STOP!" He screamed as he chased him upwards into the clouds and caught up with him. Bomber Jack was obviously struggling, chocking as the oxygen was slowly vanishing from his body. Astro snatched one of Atlas's wrist. "STOP IT! STOP IT!"

"I'm going to stop it alright!" Atlas snarled. "I'm gonna put the stop to this creep so he can't kill anyone else! How do you like suffering you scum bag!"

Astro was pulling as hard as he could. "This isn't right Atlas! Two wrongs won't bring Timber back! A fire fighter isn't supposed to kill!"

Astro rolled around to slap Atlas in the face. "Damn it Atlas! A fire fighter doesn't take a life no matter who it is! You can't do this!"

Atlas's eyes bulged as he looked at the twitching Bomber Jack…"Don't do it…you'll never go back to who you really are and you certainly won't see the academy. Is this what you want? Is it really worth this?"

Atlas slackened and quickly flew back down to the ground, ripped open Bomber Jack's shirt and started giving him CPR till the police arrived.

**Epilog**

Atlas placed the stuffed teddy bear on the mound of grass and softly ran a hand over the white marble cap-stone, his "Probie" cap resting in his lap. Astro walked up behind him, smiling as he looked at the crisp lined blue uniform Atlas was wearing.

"Well…Bomber Jack's not going to see daylight for a century and it's a good thing the courts are going to overlook you bashing up a police officer."

"Hmph…" Atlas replied. "Well at least I can stop living at that abandoned plant, the place stunk as it was anyway."

Astro found a place to sit in the grass and looked at the teddy bear. "You miss him don't you?"

"Miss him? Such a illogical human emotion…but maybe one I won't mind treasuring. Yes….yes I do. I can't replace him…no one can I guess."

Astro smiled. "The uniform looks so strange on you."

" Have I insulted your stupid pointy hair or that black tights and red boots are for freaks?"

"Touché" Astro laughed. "So you gonna come over tonight for dinner or do I have to drag you there?"

"Will your crazy sister be there?"

"Yeah."

Atlas jumped up and flew off leaving Astro to chase him into the distant sunset. "Get back here Atlas! You're not worming your way out of this!"

" Keep your loony little sister! I'm not wearing a dress again!….."

The end


End file.
